http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48211027#.UAWtL7RST2Q

NEW YORK — After a confidential two-year review, the Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday emphatically reaffirmed its policy of excluding gays, ruling out any changes despite relentless protest campaigns by some critics.

An 11-member special committee, formed discreetly by top Scout leaders in 2010, "came to the conclusion that this policy is absolutely the best policy for the Boy Scouts," the organization' national spokesman, Deron Smith, told The Associated Press.
Smith said the committee, comprised of professional scout executives and adult volunteers, was unanimous in its conclusion — preserving a long-standing policy that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 and has remained controversial ever since.
As a result of the committee's decision, the Scouts' national executive board will take no further action on a recently submitted resolution asking for reconsideration of the membership policy.
The Scouts' chief executive, Bob Mazzuca, contended that most Scout families support the policy, which applies to both leaders and Scouts.
"The vast majority of the parents of youth we serve value their right to address issues of same-sex orientation within their family, with spiritual advisers and at the appropriate time and in the right setting," Mazzuca said. "We fully understand that no single policy will accommodate the many diverse views among our membership or society."
The president of the largest U.S. gay-rights group, Chad Griffin of the Human Rights Campaign, depicted the Scouts' decision as "a missed opportunity of colossal proportions."
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"With the country moving toward inclusion, the leaders of the Boy Scouts of America have instead sent a message to young people that only some of them are valued," he said. "They've chosen to teach division and intolerance."
The Scouts did not identify the members of the special committee that studied the issue, but said in a statement that they represented "a diversity of perspectives and opinions."
"The review included forthright and candid conversation and extensive research and evaluations — both from within Scouting and from outside of the organization," the statement said.
The announcement suggests that hurdles may be high for a couple of members of the national executive board — Ernst & Young CEO James Turley and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson — who have recently indicated they would try to work from within to change the policy. Both of their companies have been commended by gay-rights groups for gay-friendly employment policies.
Stephenson is on track to become president of the Scouts' national board in 2014, and will likely face continued pressure from gay-rights groups to try to end the exclusion policy. Asked for comment on Tuesday about the Scouts' decision to keep the policy, AT&T did not refer to Stephenson's situation specifically.
"We don't agree with every policy of every organization we support, nor would we expect them to agree with us on everything," the company said. "Our belief is that change at any organization must come from within to be successful and sustainable."
A statement from the executive committee of the Scouts' national executive board alluded to the Turley-Stephenson developments.
"Scouting believes that good people can personally disagree on this topic and still work together to achieve the life-changing benefits to youth through Scouting," the statement said. "While not all board members may personally agree with this policy, and may choose a different direction for their own organizations, BSA leadership agrees this is the best policy for the organization."
Since 2000, the Boy Scouts have been targeted with numerous protest campaigns and run afoul of some local nondiscrimination laws because of the membership policy.
One ongoing protest campaign involves Jennifer Tyrrell, the Ohio mother of a 7-year-old Cub Scout who was ousted as a Scout den mother because she is lesbian.
Change.org, an online forum supporting activist causes, says more than 300,000 people have signed its petition urging the Scouts to reinstate Tyrrell and abandon the exclusion policy. The petition is to be delivered to the Scouts' national headquarters in Irving, Texas, on Wednesday.

You seem to be missing the bigger picture.
They exclude girls too, and atheists/agnostics.
That's a lot more people than just homosexuals.
But of course they have the right too, from the freedom of association guaranteed by the constitution.

Sucks they don't have Boy Scout cookies, pretty sure Boy Scouts have their shit together a lot more than the Girl Scouts do.

Props to them for standing up for their values.

This post was edited by bwokbwok on Jul 17 2012 01:58pm

One of Scout Laws is to be reverent. Atheists and agnostics can't be reverent.

Phil, why do you care so much? The Boy Scouts exclude females from joining too. They don't want any sexuality involved in scouting. A gay person is attracted to men which means that it's possible for sexuality to be involved.

All they've reaffirmed is that they'll dwindle and become marginalized until they become extinct, a thing of the past

...props to the BSA for not folding under the weight of PC pressure and for doing what's right instead of what is currently popular .

Actually the BSA does have a program that allows girls to join. It's called the explorer scouts and is co-ed. So really they just discriminate against atheists and non-heterosexual non-cisgender males. They barely tolerate Muslims, Buddhists, and I'm not even sure the organization has support for Hindus.

Shame because the BSA is better than public schools for teaching people life skills.

Yeah, a good life skill to have is knowing where your penis goes and doesn't go

...unless that life skill is heterosexuality ?